Awesome idea for a satire site, and this appears to be well intended. However it did bring an interesting thought to mind: somebody could easily create a site like this for the express purpose of building retargeting audiences in a given niche. Post something likely to go viral in tech circles, for example, then throw retargeting pixels from FB, Google, etc on there. Notice that the URL posted to HN had a tracking parameter attached to it (“?HackerNews”). I didn’t bother to look at the code on the site, but I noticed that Adblock Plus blocked 4 elements on the page, so maybe they’re already doing this. Even just with the YouTube-based promo video embedded on the page, you can retarget people that watched the video.
I shared an office with the founder of Sanctus for a while (James) when he was working on a different startup. Sanctus is a brilliant idea that's doing good work. If it scales well it could make a real difference in a lot of people's lives. Nice guy too.
Having been at the tail end of the age group that missed the normalization of 'likes' as a legitimate asset to accumulate, I'm curious what the turning point was when people no longer felt self conscious to openly admitting to collecting these virtual assets? Startups, media campaigns etc, we understood why they were doing it, money. But for most social-media users, that's obviously not the case.
I'll admit, when I had a facebook account I felt vulnerable when a post of mine didn't get too many likes but it was considered 'lame' to worry about it. Just a few years ago, it was considered a personality flaw to be preoccupied with likes and follower counts. Now it seems it's a primary and openly admitted pre-occupation of many users if not a whole generation, from average Joe's to celebrities.
Were there a set of key events that led to this normalization of what used to be a frowned upon behavior? Or was it merely a grinding away of cultural norms through persistent gamification mechanics?
The key development was growing up with an always connected smartphone. There was a period between the early 90s and the mid 00s where kids grew up with a concept of the internet, but not everyone had it, it was hard to get access to so you treated your time in it preciously, and because of this you had several other methods of communicating with friends (like actually calling their landline and actually asking their parents if they are free to talk on the phone.)
Kids who grew up in the 80s were too early to have had the internet at all. But kids who grew up in the 00s, notably after the iPhone came out in 06, grew up very differently. The internet wasn't a precious resource, but an always available utility ready to be consumed at will.
This generation is growing up in a never ending onslaught of advertisements and peer pressure the likes of which we didn't experience. They are all guinea pigs for the Facebooks of the world, subjects of the A/B psychographic targeting grind. Their dopamine receptors have been primed since birth to go crazy at the sight of a like.
Anyway, that's my take on it as someone who grew up in this tiny golden era of the internet.
I think someone of the change has come from the realization that you can turn likes/eyeballs into IRL money. Whether its from things like youtube monetization or being paid to promote products and lifestyles, as I've heard people do on instagram.
but... I think it just got normalized. It was like online dating, a lot of people wouldn't admit / kept it quite guarded that they met their partner online. Now it's almost odd if you didn't.
Seems to me more common on Twitter, moreso as a way of shortcuts to figuring out who (most followers) and what (most retweets/favorites) to pay attention to.
It sort of makes sense there, but it still would seem lame to me for the average person to publicly admit to caring about FB, Instagram, and Hacker News likes and engagement (obviously everyone does at least a little privately). I'm not hip though. Is this still the case or not?
Does usenet fit the bill ? (no ‘likes’ per se, but the number of answers in a thread would be a good proxy)
Or blog rings where people would link to your pages and you’d monitor link numbers and page views ?
or just the number of comments on your “guestbook” section of your blog ?
I am not sure if those were more or less legitimate to accumulate than likes. My parents sure didn’t understand what we could be doing on the internet (I passed it as a research tool while still studying) but friends would proudly show their blog numbers, there was a hierarchy of well respected posters on boards, and there was a clear social effect IRL during off meetings.
In a way I think the numbers game started the minute something could be counted regarding stuff you did online.
I'm at the tail end too, and don't "get it" but I can see it for what it is, I think. I think for a number of people, money is more of an achievement than something you convert in to goods and services. It's a number on a leaderboard to track and I think likes/favorites/hearts on Social Media may be real similar and far easier to achieve since there is little to no risk and very little work required. They collect them for recognition, self-esteem and to rank higher on a leaderboard, not much more to it. They are earning that next level and winning a game.
Pretending to be what you view as normal/perfect is nothing new. Every family in the 50s was not Leave It To Beaver.
If anything, you might be seeing seeing the tail-end of that kind of pretending. But probably not. The internet is just the newest place to keep up appearances to those around you.
those that now what a dial-up modem sounds like and those that don't, and to think there was also a time when it was a big deal to be able to also talk on the phone while surfing the information superhighway
There was a common issue that has since been fixed where boyfriend photos were accidentally posted instead of girlfriends. We have since corrected the issue and removed all posts made in error.
I use the Face app to enhance my face/dating profile pics especially the goatee which changes your skin tone and adds a furrier goatee. It’s not a huge tweak to how I look so those who I go on dates or hook up with haven’t said anything and our subsequent dates or hook ups continued.
Overall the Internet is and slowly becoming less of a trustworthy source for much of anything. Thus dating apps that force u to take a pic of yourself thru the app no outside pics is probably going to become a thing.
What if you do have the money and could indeed make time and also want to do a lot of travel, have awesome friends, eat nice dinner, do weekend partying, and own all those things, but you are simply too lazy?
A lot of the social media personas are made to impress, a proof that fun was had and life was liven, but nobody can really prove those things unless they're also eye witnesses, and people probably wouldn't question the authenticity of someone's social postings unless they do not match the financial or social status of such person.
Say you do want to maintain this "perfect" social image and are just lazy do all the things yourselves, then would it make sense to hire someone to do the things you want to for you and post it on your behalf, or photoshop yourself into every image, and tell you that you totally could have done exactly that?
Is faking a unpractical life style different from faking a practical one?
> What if you do have the money and could indeed and also want to do a lot of travel, have awesome friends, eat nice dinner, do weekend partying, and own all those things, but you simply do not have the time?
My coach said something like: Focus on yourself. Don't care what other people think. If someone laughs at you, then great, it means they are not focusing on themselves and you will have an advantage. If someone thinks you're a looser, it doesn't matter, you can still have a happy life, while others are occupied on trying to look good, you can spend that energy on improving yourself to reach your own goals and desires.
In my own coaching I try to make sure goals have intrinsic motivation, not based on what other people think. For example a bad motive is "I want to have big muscles so others will respect me", vs a good motive is "I want to have big muscles so I will feel better about myself". So don't have a party just to show off on Facebook how a good life you have, instead, forbid cameras and enjoy yourself.
Buying photos probably isn't a sustainable way to maintain a profile. On the other hand, the transformation of ordinary photos into "perfect instagram photos" seems plausibly doable by some form of generative neural nets (akin to the style transfer and fake celebrity apps). Obviously, such photos would need to be also human vetted but this could open up a lot of possibilities.
And sure, this site is fake but I don't think instagram insanity is going away just with site pointing to mental health considerations. You'd need to change society, how people relate to fame and so-forth.
Letting literally everyone fake perfection actually seems more plausible as a way to escape the insanity of everyone wanting to be celebrity compared to links to psychologists talking about problems. It would be great "raising awareness" could help problems but I think history shows awareness raising does nearly nothing especially compared to giving someone a tool operate differently. For example, there's at least claims that most plastic surgery patients really do feel happier long term - at least for simple changes.
I know it's a parody, but it's not a horrible business idea, and some agencies do similar with their clients. Many models etc you may follow in Instagram really have an agency that schedules posts that aren't even from that day to keep social engagement up, they have post scheduler and mix in day to day content. The pictures of people with their feet hanging out of a helicopter or tent, etc, are largely compositions. It's a big business. CNBC, I believe, did a special on this. It was fairly mind blowing.
This is brilliant. What's worrying is that this could quite possibly be a valid, profitable business idea. Maybe even using deep fakes to put your face on a moving jetski or something. It would probably impress a lot of people while the tech is still fairly esoteric.
Are you only half-way through the JS course at Code Academy? Afraid of being rejected for coding jobs? Do you know the posted requirements are BS, and you're confident you can grow into any developer role?
For the next 30 days, you can buy a "JobHunter Special": listing as "current employee" on a corporate website, live email replies from 2 "former" companies in case of a reference check, and 30 commits on a Github "project".
We also offer the "Personality Special" Wordpress vanity blog package! Choose between the "team compassion" ( two photoshopped weeks of volunteering at a children's hospital in Southeast Asia) or the "risktaker" ( a photoshopped 10 day canoe tour in the Amazon). All photos include valid EXIF data for dates and locations.
In the video, the first girl interviewed is shaking her head "no" while talking. I see that often in people being interviewed like this. It's just extra obvious here. Another typical example is someone being interviewed like "we're investing a lot in this project in our school which is great for the students [shakes head no while saying so]" or e.g. a kickstarter video like "this product is going to revolutionize the ..... [shakes head no while mellow guitar music plays in the background]"
What does the no shake mean? Does it mean what they're telling is not true? Or is there some other reason why people instinctively shake no while talking in interviews?
For those who don't want to download the 15.0 MB presskit zip file at the end, but still want to know what it contains:
.
├── ~$fefaker.docx
├── lifefaker-pressrelease.docx
├── lifefaker-pressrelease.pdf
└── Screenshots : Banners
├── lifefaker site 1.jpg
├── lifefaker site 2.jpg
├── lifefaker site 3.jpg
├── lifefaker site 4.jpg
├── lifefaker site 5.jpg
├── lifefaker site 6.jpg
├── lifefaker site 7.jpg
├── lifefaker site 8.jpg
├── lifefaker site 9.jpg
├── longbanner-lifefaker-1.jpg
├── longbanner-lifefaker-2.jpg
├── longbanner-lifefaker-3.jpg
├── squarebanner-lifefaker-1.jpg
└── squarebanner-lifefaker-2.jpg
The pdf gives a basic overview of what the site pretends to do, then says:
> "However, anyone who tries to use Lifefaker.com will learn the real purpose of the project. They’ll receive a message from Sanctus, a mental health start-up. The site reminds us that we’ve all felt the pressures of social media – with 62% of people feeling inadequate comparing their lives to those online. The site users can click through to Sanctus.io for a film exploring the unhealthy behaviours on social media that impact our mental health, and what we can do to change them.
I have one credit card that I pay off every month and never charge more than 20 percent of its limit. My house, vehicle, etc. are all paid for. I spend very little as I need little. I have been frugal all my life and now I find a credit score of 500. I contacted a credit scoring firm to figure this whole thing out for me but got turned down several times not until I read about a well recommended credit repair firm. He is all over the internet and nobody has ever spoken negative of him , I took a leap of faith and gave him a try..He boosted my scores, removed all my negatives . Now I am living a standard life and I can’t thank him enough..He’s blunt and honest. You can give him a try for your credit score boost.. send him on email [email protected]
PHONE:+1 321 256 3670
What I'd really encourage people is to try acting classes. It's a weird form of therapy whereas the focus is not you, as when you go to a therapist, but inadvertently the things you do there work on yourself.
Here's an excerpt from a book on the actor's craft.
“You asked me a question,” Bill says, looking at Jon. “You asked me, ‘How can we get better at processing our emotions?’ You should all turn off your cell phones. Shut down your computers. Click off your iPods and your televisions and everything you listen to that isn’t human. Modern society has surrounded us with these things and they’re killing us. We’re beginning to forget what it is simply to breathe and eat and laugh and watch and wonder and listen and experience one another. We’re forgetting how to be human beings with actual opinions and genuine feelings and originality. And if we can’t be human, how can we ever hope to be artists"
This guy who taught acting classes for 30 years, is able to see clearly what technology has done for human contact.
If you think about it, it really makes sense that there's something really fundamental for us humans in acting. It's an art that has been with us for thousands of years, and has withstood the test of time.
I would legitimately buy this to subtly troll my friends and wait to see how long it took them to figure out that I was just posting stock photos over and over.
[+] [-] timdorr|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SlowRobotAhead|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] downandout|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] evrydayhustling|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] onion2k|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] philwelch|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] goodJobWalrus|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] IshKebab|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Hoasi|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] almiron10|8 years ago|reply
This is because the site tested positive on the Ethereum Phishing Detector."
[+] [-] heedlessly3|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] siavosh|8 years ago|reply
I'll admit, when I had a facebook account I felt vulnerable when a post of mine didn't get too many likes but it was considered 'lame' to worry about it. Just a few years ago, it was considered a personality flaw to be preoccupied with likes and follower counts. Now it seems it's a primary and openly admitted pre-occupation of many users if not a whole generation, from average Joe's to celebrities.
Were there a set of key events that led to this normalization of what used to be a frowned upon behavior? Or was it merely a grinding away of cultural norms through persistent gamification mechanics?
[+] [-] ModernMech|8 years ago|reply
Kids who grew up in the 80s were too early to have had the internet at all. But kids who grew up in the 00s, notably after the iPhone came out in 06, grew up very differently. The internet wasn't a precious resource, but an always available utility ready to be consumed at will.
This generation is growing up in a never ending onslaught of advertisements and peer pressure the likes of which we didn't experience. They are all guinea pigs for the Facebooks of the world, subjects of the A/B psychographic targeting grind. Their dopamine receptors have been primed since birth to go crazy at the sight of a like.
Anyway, that's my take on it as someone who grew up in this tiny golden era of the internet.
[+] [-] retox|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] keithnz|8 years ago|reply
but... I think it just got normalized. It was like online dating, a lot of people wouldn't admit / kept it quite guarded that they met their partner online. Now it's almost odd if you didn't.
[+] [-] peacetreefrog|8 years ago|reply
It sort of makes sense there, but it still would seem lame to me for the average person to publicly admit to caring about FB, Instagram, and Hacker News likes and engagement (obviously everyone does at least a little privately). I'm not hip though. Is this still the case or not?
[+] [-] deltron3030|8 years ago|reply
Influencer marketing getting popular most likely.
[+] [-] hrktb|8 years ago|reply
Does usenet fit the bill ? (no ‘likes’ per se, but the number of answers in a thread would be a good proxy)
Or blog rings where people would link to your pages and you’d monitor link numbers and page views ?
or just the number of comments on your “guestbook” section of your blog ?
I am not sure if those were more or less legitimate to accumulate than likes. My parents sure didn’t understand what we could be doing on the internet (I passed it as a research tool while still studying) but friends would proudly show their blog numbers, there was a hierarchy of well respected posters on boards, and there was a clear social effect IRL during off meetings.
In a way I think the numbers game started the minute something could be counted regarding stuff you did online.
[+] [-] jetsnoc|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] rkuykendall-com|8 years ago|reply
If anything, you might be seeing seeing the tail-end of that kind of pretending. But probably not. The internet is just the newest place to keep up appearances to those around you.
[+] [-] itronitron|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] tylerlastovich|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jstanley|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fatjokes|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] foota|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] PeterStuer|8 years ago|reply
Why has my girlfriend turned into a boyfriend?
There was a common issue that has since been fixed where boyfriend photos were accidentally posted instead of girlfriends. We have since corrected the issue and removed all posts made in error.
[+] [-] throwaway_234|8 years ago|reply
Overall the Internet is and slowly becoming less of a trustworthy source for much of anything. Thus dating apps that force u to take a pic of yourself thru the app no outside pics is probably going to become a thing.
[+] [-] rdiddly|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bwang29|8 years ago|reply
A lot of the social media personas are made to impress, a proof that fun was had and life was liven, but nobody can really prove those things unless they're also eye witnesses, and people probably wouldn't question the authenticity of someone's social postings unless they do not match the financial or social status of such person.
Say you do want to maintain this "perfect" social image and are just lazy do all the things yourselves, then would it make sense to hire someone to do the things you want to for you and post it on your behalf, or photoshop yourself into every image, and tell you that you totally could have done exactly that?
Is faking a unpractical life style different from faking a practical one?
[+] [-] alorimer|8 years ago|reply
That makes it ethical... right?
[+] [-] z3t4|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] joe_the_user|8 years ago|reply
Buying photos probably isn't a sustainable way to maintain a profile. On the other hand, the transformation of ordinary photos into "perfect instagram photos" seems plausibly doable by some form of generative neural nets (akin to the style transfer and fake celebrity apps). Obviously, such photos would need to be also human vetted but this could open up a lot of possibilities.
And sure, this site is fake but I don't think instagram insanity is going away just with site pointing to mental health considerations. You'd need to change society, how people relate to fame and so-forth.
Letting literally everyone fake perfection actually seems more plausible as a way to escape the insanity of everyone wanting to be celebrity compared to links to psychologists talking about problems. It would be great "raising awareness" could help problems but I think history shows awareness raising does nearly nothing especially compared to giving someone a tool operate differently. For example, there's at least claims that most plastic surgery patients really do feel happier long term - at least for simple changes.
[+] [-] pjc50|8 years ago|reply
The reverse of Harrison Bergeron? Somehow more humane and workable.
http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/harrison.html
[+] [-] partiallypro|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] osrec|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ilkan|8 years ago|reply
For the next 30 days, you can buy a "JobHunter Special": listing as "current employee" on a corporate website, live email replies from 2 "former" companies in case of a reference check, and 30 commits on a Github "project".
We also offer the "Personality Special" Wordpress vanity blog package! Choose between the "team compassion" ( two photoshopped weeks of volunteering at a children's hospital in Southeast Asia) or the "risktaker" ( a photoshopped 10 day canoe tour in the Amazon). All photos include valid EXIF data for dates and locations.
(/notreal)
[+] [-] Aardwolf|8 years ago|reply
What does the no shake mean? Does it mean what they're telling is not true? Or is there some other reason why people instinctively shake no while talking in interviews?
[+] [-] 2048_bytes|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] executesorder66|8 years ago|reply
> "However, anyone who tries to use Lifefaker.com will learn the real purpose of the project. They’ll receive a message from Sanctus, a mental health start-up. The site reminds us that we’ve all felt the pressures of social media – with 62% of people feeling inadequate comparing their lives to those online. The site users can click through to Sanctus.io for a film exploring the unhealthy behaviours on social media that impact our mental health, and what we can do to change them.
> Download Stills | Download Film "
[+] [-] mrnobody_67|8 years ago|reply
They just need a "Look at all the famous people I know" option :)
[+] [-] Maryhart6464|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] speby|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ponderatul|8 years ago|reply
Here's an excerpt from a book on the actor's craft. “You asked me a question,” Bill says, looking at Jon. “You asked me, ‘How can we get better at processing our emotions?’ You should all turn off your cell phones. Shut down your computers. Click off your iPods and your televisions and everything you listen to that isn’t human. Modern society has surrounded us with these things and they’re killing us. We’re beginning to forget what it is simply to breathe and eat and laugh and watch and wonder and listen and experience one another. We’re forgetting how to be human beings with actual opinions and genuine feelings and originality. And if we can’t be human, how can we ever hope to be artists"
This guy who taught acting classes for 30 years, is able to see clearly what technology has done for human contact.
If you think about it, it really makes sense that there's something really fundamental for us humans in acting. It's an art that has been with us for thousands of years, and has withstood the test of time.
[+] [-] hhw3h|8 years ago|reply
For better or for worse I feel there is definitely a market for some version of this.
[+] [-] montecarl|8 years ago|reply
You're not alone. 62% of people feel inadequate comparing their lives to others online.
Then links to some mental health article on social media.
[+] [-] tgb|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Thriptic|8 years ago|reply